A day in a life.

Whilst travelling into the city the other week with my other half, Melbourne was a very wet city indeed. We travelled very early in the morning and I managed to capture this distorted sunrise vision through a rain-dropped windscreen as we joined the queue along the freeway

Thought I might as well start the Christmas countdown although I don't mean to scare anybody. I have my own countdown you see.

One week and a half ago....8 days to be exact, the boss went on leave and muggins here had to slide into her role as acting unit manager of a very busy unpredictable birthing unit.

I am feeling a little swamped (understatement) at this point as I have so much to do each day, plus extra she has left me that I have not had time to contemplate.

I just wish I had one day without interruptions, a day where I could close the door and just do what I want to do, alas and alack, the busy ward with all its issues render me putting things aside and catching up, and just doing this and that and going to meetings and remembering to draw breath from time to time.

I have 8 shifts to go with one of them a study day in the city. I have been approached via email to act as a local contact on that day which means I get to meet and greet people, ensure they have nametags and booklets and all that kind of stuff you get when you attend a workshop. The bonus for me is that the company running the workshop have reimbursed my costs to attend so I consider myself most fortunate indeed.

Do you like my hands?

These hands represent some of my colleagues. They also represent the tactile emphasis we have in our roles as midwives in our busy unit.

Our job entails not only catching babies as they come into the world from the security of their mother's uterus. Our job also implies touch, a form of communication many of us in this world take for granted. We touch our colleagues, we touch those babies, we touch their mothers, we even touch their partners and their families from time to time. With that touch comes an element of faith and trust. What some forget is that we, as people, are only human and errors are made from time to time. I am not writing about life threatening errors but merely minute errors in the broadest of sense. I find it dismaying and disappointing when some people within the community will not grace us with an element of difference. Whether we like it or not, we are all subjective to our own knowledge, even if we believe we are objective and we can never be 100% accurate on anything that we do that requires use of senses such as touch and smell.

There are days I wonder why I do what I do when faced with conflict and ever-growing issues...but there are times such as when I took these photos I know why I do what I do.

I am a midwife to work with the wonderful people that work around me and for this will always be grateful.